stitches

We had our first (but definitely not our last) urgent care visit this week.  Sigh.  Perhaps I should keep a scorecard?

My family, since I was a little kid, travels to Cedar Point every summer to spend a few days lounging on the beach and screaming our heads off on roller coasters!!  And of course since the boys were born we have made it a point to carry on the tradition.  My parents now pull their camper up to The Point a few times each summer and we always try to go up for at least a few days.  There is no better feeling in the world than watching my little boys experience the wonders and awes of Cedar Point.  I have so many wonderful memories of my summers up North.

We made a trip to Cedar Point this past week.  We had arrived several hours prior to the hotel check-in time in order to maximize our vacation time.  We had been walking the boys around the property a bit in order to get them to take a nap.  So after the brief stroller semi-nap Grandma suggested that I stop by the hotel to see if we could check-in just a bit early.  So as I was checking-in Kara and Grandma got the boys out of their strollers to run around a bit.  The next thing I hear is a sobbing Jakob.  He had tripped over the wheel of the stroller and fell straight into the corner of the wood table in the lobby.  And so within seconds I see Kara dashing off to the restroom with Jakob.  When I see Grandma trailing close behind I ask, "Is he okay?" and I think Grandma responded along the lines of "I think it's bad" and that was all I needed to go chasing after Kara and Jakob.  And actually, in the end, the visual I have in my memory of Kara and Jakob in the bathroom as I came through that door has continually made me laugh through this whole adventure.  I run into the restroom and Kara is literally turning around in circles while blood is spewing out of a cut above Jakob's eye and she is going "There are no paper towels.  Why don't they have any paper towels?  Where the F*&( are the paper towels?"  So I immediately grab Jakob and head back to the front desk because I know they will have (1) a first aid kit with some sort of gauze and (2) probably paper towels within arms reach.  Wrong.  Wrong. Wrong.  Wrong.  You would have thought I had brought a gun shot victim to the front desk.  There were two young girls working the front desk and both stood paralyzed with fear when I said, "I need paper towels and a first aid kit."  They just stood there and stared at me.  I thought "Surely they didn't hear me.  And maybe they don't see the blood that is pooling on the floor beside me."  So I gave it another shot and this time I simplified it, "Paper Towels.  First Aid Kit."  Yep.  Nothing.  Just crickets.  Though this time one of the girls turned around and ran into a back room.  But she didn't come back.  I'm still not entirely sure where she went.  Maybe to get a drink?  Or to turn in her resignation?  Anyhow in the end it was the young man on the other side of the lobby who was sweeping the floor that sprung into action.  I didn't know it but he had run off to grab some paper towels and an ice pack once he saw me come out of the bathroom with Jakob.  I wish I would have gotten his name.  He needs a promotion.  Maybe even to the front desk.  I hear there might be an opening.  Anyhow.  We put some pressure on the cut and it stopped bleeding within minutes.  We managed to calm Jakob down while we waited for EMS to arrive on the scene.  I guess that happens when you get injured in a public place.  Here is our little Jakob as we were waiting for him to get checked out.

I was really hoping that we wouldn't need stitches.  Can we say denial?  The gentlemen from EMS took one look at it and knew it was going to at least need glued shut.  Because we were from out of town he offered to come have someone from Cedar Point drive us to the hospital so we didn't have to worry about getting lost.  It was a very kind gesture and without really thinking about it we took him up on the offer.  However, as we were waiting for the vehicle to come and pick us up I began to regret our decision.  We weren't really in an emergency situation.  Jakob was just fine.  I'm sure his head hurt but we didn't need to be rushing anywhere.  I didn't have proper supplies to drag a toddler to a hospital for hours on end and I would have to go by myself as the car only allowed for one other adult  Plus I would much rather visit an urgent care then a hospital if at all possible.  So once the car arrived to take us to the hospital and the car seat in the vehicle was all but still in the box I looked at the driver and said, "Thanks.  But I think this is overkill.  I'm going to drive myself."   This was the best decision in the end.  Alex stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while Kara and I took Jakob to the closest urgent care we could find per Google Maps.  And I want to add in what a blessing it was to see Alex react in this situation.  Alex immediately knew that Jakob was hurt and he did nothing but behave like a gentleman during the entire situation.  He was totally being ignored and he stood patiently and did not make a noise until he knew all was okay with Jakob.  It was so sweet.  

I cannot say enough about the wonderful care we received from the folks at the urgent care.  We were only in the facility for a total of 60 minutes and every staff member was so very kind to all of us.  And Jakob did an amazing job.  Here is my tough man waiting for the doctor to come take a look at the cut.

In the end the cut was actually very deep.  So it was decided that Jakob would need stitches.  Sigh.  I knew this was going to be fun.  The put some numbing cream on the cut to help minimize the burning and pain from the injections of lidocaine.  Kara actually held Jakob while they did the stitches.  I knew she would be better at it.  So basically Kara laid down on the table and then bear hugged Jakob on top of her.  So she had hold of his arms and hands.  Another nurse held his head still and then I stood at the foot of the bed and held his feet.  He was a champ.  He cried a lot but he never really pulled away from us.  It was just a frightened cry.  Can you blame the guy?  Grandma had given Jakob a giraffe when he first got to Cedar Point that day and Jakob was holding on to that giraffe with all his might while getting stitches.  Jakob left with 6 stitches above his left eye.  Here is our little champ on the way home.

So far the cut seems to be healing just fine.  Jakob knows he has a boo-boo.  He will point to it when you mention it.  We made an appointment for next week with our pediatrician to get the stitches taken out.  

So who will be next?

Mary

summer fun

We have really been trying to keep the boys as active as possible this summer.  There are a lot of reasons for doing so.  But the most important reason ... They are boys.  They are active.  They go crazy when they are forced to sit still for too long.  So Kara and I find ourselves thinking 15 steps ahead every moment of every day.  The boys and I went on our nightly walk tonight and as we were coming back I was trying to run through different ideas in my head.  I typically have about 45 minutes to entertain the boys each night before we head inside for dinner.  We almost always play outside unless the weather is bad.  So tonight I decided to grab an empty container and fill it with dish soap.  Kara must have let the boys play with paint brushes today so they were sitting out on our patio.  I quickly learned that painting with bubbles is a hit in our house!  The water and the bubbles kept them fully entertained until dinner.  Score one for me!

Mary

24 month stats

Jakob

Weight: 26.6 lbs (31st percentile)
Height: 2' 9 1/2" (23rd percentile)

Alex

Weight: 23.4 lbs (4th percentile)
Height: 2' 9" (13th percentile)

Mary

when it becomes just a bit more

I will begin by announcing that we officially have 2-year-old little boys residing under our roof.  We had a wonderful (and quiet) birthday celebration and I promise a post as soon as possible.

I thought I would give an update on some of the developmental issues we have been experiencing over the last year.  I have a few updates.

The boys are both still enrolled in speech therapy.  They both go to private therapy 1x a week for 30 minutes and then they get speech therapy through the state program every other week for 60 minutes.  The boys seem to get a lot out of both sessions but we are fans of the private speech therapy simply because of the 1:1 attention each boy gets from the therapist.  But it also costs us a significant amount of money each week and while we are so fortunate that my health insurance covers the session I have a high deductible plan that has the potential to make things a bit complicated once my employer funded HRA (health reimbursement account) runs out.  So we are just taking things day by day.  We have also enrolled the boys in a program called Tiny Talkers over the summer.  It will be 1x a week for 60 minutes and it will be a program led by a speech therapist but it will be a small group setting with other kids.  This is also a bit costly but we think it will prepare the boys for preschool in the fall.  Preschool?  I know!  We have decided to enroll the boys in the preschool program that is offered free of charge for children who qualify for early intervention through the state.  We recently toured the facility and got to sit in during a class and Kara and I think it will be extremely beneficial for the boys.  And it comes at no cost to us.  This will be for 3 days a week and it will begin in Fall 2014.

We think both boys are continuing to make improvements with their speech development.  Jakob is progressing at a faster speed but this doesn't surprise us.  Jakob does A LOT of repeating these days and he started just this week with full on "jargon" conversations.  It is hilarious.  And Alex is also progressing too.  Alex has started to repeat more vowel sounds and even has a handful of words he speaks on a regular basis.  Alex has also recently started to pay very close attention to our lips.  This is a huge step in the right direction as we know it means he now understands that he us to change the shape of his lips in order to change the sounds that come out.  It's hard to quantify the number of words each boy speaks at the moment.  They are sporadic for the most part but both boys do say some words with regularity that include OH-NO, mine, no, mom, moo, hop-hop, bye-bye, ooo (for open), hi.   I know there are a lot I am forgetting at the moment.

The speech therapist that visits the boys mentioned to us a few weeks ago that she was starting to think that Alex might be experiencing some sensory issues that could be a reason that he has experienced a delay in his speech development.  I will be honest.  My first reaction was, "Huh?" but then Kara and I started to do some reading and this light bulb just went off in both of our heads.  You should have seen the text message conversations between us on this day.  We always felt that there were significant differences between the boys but having never really been around toddlers prior to Jakob and Alex we have no idea what is "normal" and what is "abnormal".  Our Jakob is our Jakob.  And our Alex is our Alex.  But we suddenly began to realize that perhaps Alex was struggling with some "bigger" issues.  And so today we had an evaluation done with an occupational therapist.  And while Kara and I knew the end result would be that Alex was experiencing some sensory issues we had no idea to the extent.  And so today Alex was labeled as having a "severe" sensory issue.  Okay.  So what did we get out of today?  That our Alex is still our Alex.  His brain is just developing in a way that is going to require us to change how we are teaching him things in order to ascertain he learns at an appropriate rate.  Basically Alex under-responds to sensory stimuli and needs to seek out additional sensory stimuli to feel content in the world.  All children have some degree of sensory issues because their brains are developing at a super fast rate.  It's just that Alex appears to be on one extreme.  So what were some of the signs for us.  Many "typical" toddler things and some not so "typical" toddler things.

* Alex is in constant movement. And this often involves doing a task over and over and over again.  And if it is not a repetitive task then Alex will usually only focus on a task for about a minute.
* Alex is a dare devil.  He is now known to jump off high places and run into things just for the "fun" of it.
* Alex has a pain threshold like no other.  The little man doesn't even move a muscle when getting blood drawn.
* Alex was a super easy baby.  He rarely cried.
* Alex is a screamer.  And he gets impatient very fast.
* He has a significant speech delay.  And he did not babble much as a baby.
* Alex is obsessed with spinning around in circles or being thrown-up in the air.
* Alex rarely smiled as a toddler.  And it's still hard to get a smile.
* Alex moved very little in my belly.
* Alex flips though books at record speed.

It all came down to quantifying these (and other) behaviors to identify whether they were simply typical toddler behaviors or if perhaps a sensory issue was at hand.  And we determined that Alex was indeed facing a sensory issue.

So the occupational therapist put Alex on a sensory diet today (seriously that's how it is referenced) and basically at an elementary level the more physical activity we can get Alex to participate in the better it's going to be for his brain development.  We need to encourage Alex to be a mover and a shaker!  We've had already noticed that Alex "talks" much more when he is being active.  So I guess the occupational therapist might be on to something.  The occupational therapist will continue to visit with us while Alex is enrolled in the services offered through the state and of course this will be a focus item when the boys go to preschool in the fall.

I'm grateful to the resources that have been given to us since the boys were born.  I believe in my heart that Alex is a very intelligent little boy.  And I believe that once we are able to identify the ways in which Alex can learn he is only going to go big places in this world.  It is my hope that both boys are on target with their peers by the time we reach kindergarten.  And I really do think that is going to happen for us.

Mary

junk food

The boys have been sick this week.  Just a little cold.  And outside of some crabbiness and runny noses the boys have really done a good job.  But of course we have held our breath each night when we put them to bed.  And of course last night the little buggers woke-up just as we were settling down for the night.  I swear they have radar.  I thought it was just Alex that had woken-up but when I went into the bedroom to try to sneak Alex out Jakob popped right up in his crib.  I actually think they woke-up because it was really warm in the nursery.  It was actually 80 degrees to be exact (I love our fancy baby monitor that gives us the temperature).  It’s so hard to judge weather in Ohio.  It’s 80 degrees one minute and then it is 30 degrees the next minute.  No joke.  So we opened up some windows to get air flowing in the bedroom and then because there is nothing to do at 11:30pm we decided to let the boys eat junk food!  We win parent of the year.  But really there are some moments when junk food is in order and Kara and I decided this was the moment.  The boys have been sick.  I made them swelter in the nursery.  They had had a busy day.  So we decided it was time to have a fun moment.  It was actually really cute because the boys have become obsessed with Lucky Charms.  They usually get them as a snack.  But of course they are only obsessed with the marshmallows.  So when we took the boys downstairs last night to get a snack Alex started to freak out because they had finished the Lucky Charms earlier in the day.  I did not want a temper tantrum at 11:30pm so I ran downstairs and grabbed a new box of Lucky Charms from our basement.  I’m a bit of a coupon nut so we have a lot of cereal on reserve because one can never pass up free cereal.  There are actually about 30 boxes of cereal in our basement at the moment.  I have a problem.  I know.  Anyhow the look on Alex’s face as I came up the stairs with a box of Lucky Charms was absolutely priceless!  It was pure joy.  And it was worth it at that moment to be up at 11:30pm on a “school night”.  We let the boys finish their snack and then we took them upstairs for story time.  And amazingly enough the boys went right back to sleep within minutes.  It could have been because the nursery had cooled down quite a bit.  It ended up being a good night.  So the pictures you see are of the boys devouring their midnight snack. 

Mary